MIKE DIL­LON’S BMW M3

Ac­cord­ing to Mike, the Targa Tour is a great way to get to put your car through its paces, as you get to do the same course that the Targa rac­ers do and use the same pace book they use.

Mike points out, “In ev­ery­day driv­ing, it’s not pos­si­ble to see the full po­ten­tial of your car. The M3 is made for the Targa Tour, with its up­hill tight twisti­ness, and those fast sweep­ing cor­ners on roads that are closed off and that you wouldn’t even know ex­ist with­out the tour.”

Mike also likes that the ex­pe­ri­ence and sport can be shared with a friend, your co-driver: “You both get to do large sighs and laugh out loud. Talk about the high­lights and share the thrills with a mate, or a mate-ess. The friends you make along the way are ones you will al­ways have and never for­get, and, each night of each day, the tour gets to book out a restau­rant in a dif­fer­ent town.

“Imag­ine as many as 80 guys and girls from 40 cars all in the same room, all pumped up af­ter a day of ex­hil­a­rat­ing Targa Tour fun. The con­ver­sa­tion is cars and roads, and ‘Did you see …?’, ‘And what about …?’ And, of course, [about how] we can all do it again to­mor­row, be­cause we have five days of this ahead of us!”

For Mike, the Targa Tour is a high­light of the year, and, be­cause he’s not rac­ing against the clock and ex­pe­ri­enc­ing the wear and tear and break­ages you’d ex­pect from full com­pe­ti­tion, the tour is an an­nual sport that he can af­ford and en­joy.

“Any­way,” he says, “just be­cause you’re not rac­ing against the clock doesn’t mean by any means that Targa Tour is a ca­sual drive — you can pick where you want to sit in the line-up, and, if you choose to po­si­tion your car against one that is your equal, it can be fast and ex­cit­ing as you strive to hold on to that po­si­tion.”